Stone Tower Temple {U5+Quill}

Jacob readies his sword and shield. "So ya wanna fight then? By tha Golden Goddesses I accept yer challenge." Jacob charges the Garo Master. As Jacob brings his sword down the Garo Master disappears.

"You fight like Ikanaian. Ikana fall to Garo for reason." The Garo Master reappears behind Jacob flying towards him swords extended. Jacob deflects the Garo with his shield. As the Garo Master hits Jacob's shield Jacob brings his swords down making contact with the Garo Master.

The Garo Master spins away. Although Jacob did hit him the Garo Master shows no sign of blood. Jacob charges again swinging his sword. The Garo Master blocks with his twin flame swords then kicks Jacob back. Jacob slides back a bit grunting from the kick. "This is gonna be good." Jacob and the Garo Master lock swords again.

The Garo Master teleported behind Jacob, and Marcus turned to comment to Loft. He was surprised to find that the boy wasn't there. Instead of standing beside him, Loft had crept up to the duo. Jacob and the Garo Master's swords were locked together, and the Garo Master's back was to them. Jacob was saying something, and Loft took the opportunity to slip behind the Garo Master and plunge his two daggers into the Garo Master's back.

The Garo Master must have had some sort of sixth sense, because at the last moment it twisted to the side. Loft's daggers still made contact, but the wounds were grazing, and again the Garo Master did not bleed. The Garo Master's robe flared as it spun away from Loft and Jacob, its robe lifting as a dark leg was lifted and slammed at Loft. Loft rolled under it, bringing his daggers slicing up. The Garo Master disappeared, re-appearing by the stone slab.

"Much better," the Garo Master said. "You fight like a-" The rest of his sentence was cut off as something small and dark brown slammed into the floor in front of him. Loft had chucked a Deku Nut at the floor, stepping between it and Jacob and closing his eyes to protect both of them. He stepped out of Jacob's way as the Garo Master stumbled back into the slab, shaking its head and slashing at the air reflexively with its swords.

"Loft tha hell er ya..." Jacob says as Loft throws the Deku Nut, but blocks the flash from Jacob. "Ah I got ya Loft." Jacob smiles as he charges the Garo Master yet again sword extended out in front of him.

Jacob impales the Garo Master into the stone slab. Jacob's sword sticks into the wall pinning the Garo Master in place. Jacob then starts beating the Garo Master's face in with his mirror shield. Jacob jumps back after a few minutes panting. The Garo Master laughs pulling a bomb out of his robe. "To die...without leaving a corpse...is the law...of us Garo."

Jacob's eyes widen as he blocks his upper body with his shield. The bomb goes off throwing Jacob back a few feet to his back. "Ugh...that en hurt."

Marcus winced as he hurried forward. At least Jacob had blocked the majority of the blast with his shield. There was no trace of the Garo Master, which Marcus found a tad suspicious. Even with the bomb, there should be some kind of trace. Some shred of clothing, or some blood, or something. There was nothing to show that the Garo Master had ever been there, besides the hole in the wall caused by Jacob's sword.

"Bruise-level injury, probably," Marcus said to himself as he placed both his hands on Jacob's chest and poured healing magic into him. "You'll be fine."

"Guys," Loft called, "the GM stole the wall!"

"What?" Marcus looked to where Loft was pointing. The stone slab was completely gone. Instead, there was a large hole in the wall. No light shone from the hole. It was completely black, and Marcus could not see anything through it. "Let's go," Marcus said. He walked through the hole, hesitating only slightly before plunging into its inky depths.

It only took a few seconds to arrive at the other side. Marcus blinked rapidly as a hot, dry wind battered his face. He could feel grainy particles stick to his face, and he wiped them off with his sleeve as he looked around. His eyes widened. They were standing in a desert field dotted with broken stone pillars. There was no sign of any walls or ceilings. The desert seemed to extend on forever, and the blue sky hung cloudless above them.

"There's no sun," he said softly. Indeed, the ever-present golden-white orb of burning light was missing. The sky was a universal shade of blue, not varying a shade as it stretched from horizon to horizon. He glanced behind him, past the others, to the doorway. It wasn't there. He wasn't surprised.

A rumbling underneath his feet made him look around. "Something's coming," he said. "Look out!" The sand exploded several dozen paces ahead of them. An enormous worm burst from the depths of the desert. It reared, its gigantic mandibles clicking as it stretched towards the sky. The scales began where the head ended, dark and impenetrable looking as they glinted ominously.

Marcus was just wondering whether they could possibly summon Eysseth when another explosion made him look round. His legs felt like collapsing as another head burst from the sand, followed by another long expanse of worm-like body. The first finally broke free completely of the sand, flying through the air as the other joined it. Marcus noted that the scales seemed to stop at the tails, which looked raw and vulnerable.

"Go for the tails," he said to Jacob and Loft. "Farore, I wish we had Eysseth."

Eysseth walks around the main room feeling uneasy. She had some special bond with Jacob. She could somehow tell when he was near, but she couldn't now. After eating those leaves her stomach felt fine. Eysseth decided that she would try to find Jacob.

Eysseth takes flight with a powerful flap of her wings. She looks around the outside of the Stone Tower finding a room with large windows that Eysseth can smell that Jacob was in. Nodding to herself she charges through the window and lands with a hard thud in the lands in the room that once had the sun wall.

Eysseth sniffs as she follows the path that Jacob had taken coming to the room where Jacob had fought the Garo Master. Eysseth cocks her head looking at the hole in the wall. She follows Jacob's sent into the hole.

"You an' me both Marcus." Jacob readies his sword and shield as a loud roar sounds over the desert. "Eysseth?" Jacob looks around in the sky blocking sand from his eyes as he sees the white outline of the Wyvern. "Eysseth!"

"That was fast," Marcus said, "thanks Farore!" The two worms were winding through the air, and a flying wyvern would make this battle much, much easier.

"Jacob," he said, "take Loft and drop him on the first worm. Let him deal with it and engage the second in the air. I'll stay behind a pillar in case you need healing." Loft nodded and ran eagerly towards the wyvern, trying to throw his arms around her neck in a greeting hug.

Marcus turned and sprinted to the nearest pillar, taking shelter from the wind and bunkering down, making himself as invisible as possible to the flying worms. He was well aware that he was a sitting duck from here, and he was equally aware that he was largely useless in this battle. As he was in most battles. Being a Healer had its drawbacks, and this was one of them. He swallowed his frustrations, however, knowing that he was important as a strategist and as a medical expert. There was nothing he could do except wait patiently and be ready. If he kept repeating this to himself, perhaps he could alleviate the knot of tension and frustration in his stomach. It felt good to be out of the desert winds, and he used his visibility to keep an eye on the two worms whenever they were in his line of vision. The knot of nervous tension enlarged whenever they left his line of sight. He wished that he could have gotten on Eysseth too, but the wyvern didn't seem to have any room for two passengers on its back.

Eysseth weaves in between the two worm things in the sky. She roars defiantly at the massive worms. She perks up as she hears Jacob yelling for her. She rushes towards Jacob weaving more as the worms try to ram her. She lands with a plop as she sinks into the sand a bit. She nuzzles Jacob a bit before licking his face. "Nice ta see ya to Eysseth. We gotta job ta do. Ready girl?" Eysseth smirks bearing her teeth before nodding in agreement. "Alright girl. Let's do this..." Jacob jumps onto the saddle on Eysseth's back and points his sword skyward. "...FOR HYRULE!!" Jacob yells and Eysseth roars in unison.

With powerful flaps of her wings Eysseth is in the air. "We gotta get Loft okay girl?" Eysseth looks back to Jacob and nods veering to the left over to where Loft is. Eysseth grabs Loft with her talons and flaps her wings gaining altitude. Eysseth rockets into the sky flying towards the blue worm. Jacob yells to Loft over the wind from Eysseth's flying, "Loft! Get ready! ETA twenty seconds ta tha drop zone! Tha LZ may be a bit hot, so land swingin' alright? Good luck an' godspeed." Eysseth flies over the middle of the blue worm as she lets go of Loft in time so he lands safely on the worm.

Eysseth circles a few times making sure Loft made the target LZ before rushing off to meet the red worm. Eysseth roars and Jacob yells sword extended as they charge.

"I guess this means you don't want a hug?" Loft's words were whipped from his mouth by the wind before they had even had a chance at life. Those poor little words- they were barely born before being brutally butchered. He was dangling inside Eysseth's claws, clutching the nearest one desperately. The claws formed a cage around him, but he wasn't taking any chances.

Jacob yelled down to him from his comfortable perch on Eysseth's back. Loft craned his head up at him. "What?" He yelled. "What's a LZ?" They approached the blue worm, and Loft realized with horror what was about to happen. "No!" He screamed. "No, no, no, no!" He clutched desperately to the nearest claw as the protective cage separating him from a plummeting doom disappeared. For a moment, he hung from the claw, his legs dangling in the air as he craned his neck up at what little he could see of Jacob. His grip slipped, and he fell, screaming. He landed with a thud on the back of the worm after barely even a millisecond, and he blinked. "Oh."

Eysseth circled around him a few times and he waved. "Call me!" He mouthed at the wyvern. Eysseth flew off, and he laughed. The worm he was standing on was flying! Flying! Winding through the air like a flying worm! Loft headed up the beast's body, staying low to keep from falling off as it undulated through the air. His eyes watered in the desert wind, but he tried to stay focused. It wasn't easy, though. Concentrating under these conditions was like taking an exam while hog-tying a rabid hippopotamus.

The scales ended, and the head suddenly began. Loft crawled forward, hooking himself onto a particularly large scale and dangling his upper body above the worm's enormous eyes. Each eye was bigger than his head, and the pupils were around the size of his fist. Upside down, he waved. His hair fell around his shoulders, but he didn't care. "Hi there!" He said happily. The monster clicked its mandibles and screeched, but Loft was already drawing out his daggers. "Say hello to Prissy and garbleshwarzzenegger!" He plunged the daggers into the eyes, ripping them from side to side as the fluids gushed out and the worm writhed in pain and shrieked in agony. Loft paused a moment to spit some out of his mouth and continued his work at mutilating its eyeballs. It had three of them, after all, and it took a while.

After a few more seconds, he was finished. Its eyes thoroughly ruined by his expert hands, it flailed wildly in the air. Loft tucked his dripping knives back into his belt and hoisted himself back onto its back. "See you later!" He said. "Or not." He laughed and gasped as the not-so-steady platform rocked from side to side. "Better get off now," he said. He sucked in a breath as he saw where the worm's path was taking them: one of the giant stone pillars dotting the desert. It was on a direct collision course, and Loft did not want to be on it when they met. He rubbed his hands together and looked at the desert floor. It wasn't too far away. He could totally jump that.

Loft pushed off the scaly back seconds before the worm's blinded head smashed into the stone pillar. The sandy wind whipped his face, and he closed his eyes before he became blinded himself. He crashed into the ground, thanking the Goddesses that he was in a desert. It still hurt a lot, though, and he was grateful to feel hands on his back.

"Idiot," a familiar voice said, "there were at least five safer ways to disembark." There was a huge crash as the worm fell to the ground. It twitched a couple times and was still. "Good job, though," he said. Marcus channelled some healing power into Loft, and Loft sighed in gratitude. "I hope Jacob's doing as well," he said.

The red worm roars as it flies toward the charging Wyvern and Hylian. At the last moment Eysseth pulls up a bit and flips upside down. As Jacob and Eysseth fly over the Worm's head Jacob slashes with his sword as deep as he can. The worms bellows and veers away from Eysseth before Jacob reaches the worm's eyes. "Damn. Take us 'round again Eysseth." Eysseth nods and banks the same direction the worm veered.

The worm squirms and wiggles as it flies trying to throw Eysseth off it's tail. Eysseth keeps pace with the worm closing the distance. As Eysseth flies closer to the head Jacob jumps from Eysseth to the worm. "Be ready ta catch me alright?" Eysseth roars and flies ahead. Jacob climbs his way to the worm's head using it's scales as foot holds. As he reaches the worm's head Jacob plunges his sword as deep as it would go in. The worm screeches in pain and shakes it's head. Jacob holds tight to his sword. The worm stops it's shaking and Jacob takes his chance. Jacob pulls up his sword and plunges it further up the worms head. Eysseth distracts the worm as Jacob keeps using the same method to climb to the worm's eyes.

Jacob stabs his sword to the hilt into the worm's top most eye. The worm lets loose an extremely loud screech and rolls over trying to shake Jacob off. Jacob hangs by his sword's hilt and sees the worm's mouth opening and closing. Jacob looks down to the bomb bag tied at his hip. He smiles pulling out a bomb. Jacob pulls out and throws about seven bombs into the worm's mouth. Jacob does a pullup using his sword and kicks off the worm removing his sword from the worm's eye. Jacob spreads his limbs as he free falls through the air. Eysseth swoops below Jacob and catches him. Jacob pats her head and looks up as the bombs go off inside the worm. Segments blow up slowly reaching the worms head which falls into the sand.

Eysseth flies over to the pillar where Marcus hid and landed softly. Jacob jumps off of Eysseth. He sheaths his sword and shield. "Well that takes care o' that right?" Jacob chuckles.

"Yes," Marcus said, "well done, both of you." He smiled at them, and turned to address Loft. The boy, shockingly, was not standing there anymore. Instead, he was standing by the blue worm he had killed. He was using his dagger as a saw to cut of the tip of one of its mandibles. "Loft," Marcus called, "what are you doing?"

Loft grew frustrated and used his feet instead. He kicked off the tip of the mandible and picked it up off the ground, brushing the sand off with his hand. He jogged back, holding his prize aloft. "Keepsake," he grinned, "let's go."

"Yes," Marcus said, "but where?"

As he spoke, the sand beneath their feet twisted and warped. It became a swirling vortex, and he fell into it, falling through sandy blackness. Sand was everywhere, in his mouth, burning his eyes, filling his tunic, and he closed his eyes in an effort to not end up like the two giant worms. He couldn't breathe, and he was relieved when he felt his feet meet solid rock. He opened his eyes, blinking rapidly to wash out the many grains of sand. Through the tears, he could see that they were back outside the Stone Tower Temple. The tents of the Stalfos lay across the battlefield from them, and many rotting corpses and clean skeletons lay unmoving on the ground.

Marcus could see Captain Keeta rush towards them, accompanied by three other Stalfos. He opened his mouth to say something but ended up retching to clear the sand out of his system instead.

Jacob snaps a crisp salute as Keeta and the three other Stalfos rush over to them. "Lieutenant Temple. Good job soldier." Keeta returns the salute and extends a bony hand to Jacob. Jacob grabs the hand and shakes it. "His Highness King Ikana as dipped into the Royal Coffers to repay you for your services to the Ikana Kingdom. You Hylians use rupees correct?"

Jacob nods. "Aye sir we do." Keeta motions forward one of the Stalfos who carries a box. The Stalfos hands the box to Jacob. Jacob takes the box looking it over. It was fine crafted out of dark brown wood with the emblem of the Ikana Royal Family embossed on the lid. "Thank ya sir."

"Don't thank me Lieutenant. Praise the king. You should find a very good payment inside." Jacob opens the box to find four red rupees lined up in a row. Jacob's eyes widen. "We have one for you as well Sergeant Heilari. You will find both yours and Loft's payments within." Keeta motions another Stalfos forward. The Stalfos steps forward and offers Marcus a box of the same design.

"Gimme that!" Loft darted forward and snatched the box out of the Stalfos' hands. He turned away from the group and cackled. "Beautiful red shinies, all mine! My precious-es!" He opened it and stared at the inside. Lying inside the dark wooden box were two red rupees and two blue ones. He whirled around and glared at the Stalfos that had born the box.

"Hey," Loft said, "what's the big idea?" His dreams of mountains of red jems were now dispelled, and his yearning to buy his own private yacht were now like the zombified corpses of the Re-deads; dissolving into a puddle of decomposed glop on the sun-baked rocks around the Stone Tower Temple.

"Lieutenant Temple was your commanding officer," Captain Keeta said, "and therefore he received a larger portion of the rewards."

"That's as stupid as a vegetarian Gohma," Loft said, "and that's saying something!"

"We are very grateful," Marcus said, pulling Loft back and stepping forward, "for your gracious gifts." He bowed slightly and turned to Loft. "Time to leave," he said to Loft, "we're all done here."

"Fine," Loft said, "but those rupees are all mine!"

"It's never wrong to dream," Marcus said, taking the box from Loft. "Now let's go."

This thread has ended. We are ready for grading. Lucario's character received 80r (he did not receive any rewards in this thread's predecessor), and my characters received 25 each.

This is approved, thanks for your patience.

In general, I liked how you guys really only did a handful of scenes but spent a decent amount of time on each one. I don't really know about a Wyvern's screech overpowering a redead's, but it's a fairly minor point. Your rewards at the end were given in an effective, straight forward manner, but above all of it was merited. Good work!